Watching Ron MacLean do his usual capable job hosting Saturday night’s Game 7 between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, it was clear that when he sticks to the game, he is one of the best hosts and set-up men out there.

That’s part of what made his gaffe last week so strange. MacLean’s worst trait is making clever — and often cheesy — quips or puns, which is relatively harmless, but his genial, folksy style is the essence of what good TV people manage to do: make the gig look easy.

That’s another reason his likening of NHL players to 9/11 first responders was so out of place. He’s supposed to be the source of sober second thought compared to his Coach’s Corner partner in crime — Don Cherry is the one who constantly sticks his foot in his mouth and is known for jingoistic outbursts.

MacLean quicky realized that his analogy was a stretch, but the damage was done. He was immediately vilified online, although the wishy-washy clarification issued by MacLean and the CBC the next day was almost worse than the initial gaffe. Clearly not an apology, it reiterated the tie-in while taking care to build up the first responders rather than the NHL players, as on his first try.

MacLean’s original choice of words stems from getting stuck in the sports hyperbolic chamber, where announcers try to make each upcoming event feel greater than the one that came before. He fell into the trap of one-upmanship with an over-the-top reference that many American sports media watchers rightly jumped in on because they couldn’t believe it.

It was a minor controversy, and after being slightly singed by the uproar here’s hoping MacLean will stick to the business at hand, and like the good announcer he usually is, let the magnitude of the game speak for itself.

Image Linkbait 101: Speaking of one-upmanship, Time Magazine’s most recent cover is a master class in how to incite a social media storm. The sexualized image of a young mom defiantly breastfeeding her almost 4-year-old son was clearly chosen to elicit the kind of social media response that it has. All you need to do is take a look at the outtakes to be sure Time’s editors knew what they were doing.

It also sucked up the most of the air time around other provocative images of the week, which is one reason people are a little late reacting to Canadian jockey Chantal Sutherland’s nude photo in Vanity Fair.

Sutherland is one of the most accomplished female jockeys in history, and the idea for the Lady Godiva-themed photo, accompanying behind-the-scenes video and corresponding article came from former model and actress Bo Derek.

Read that paragraph again. Aren’t you a little surprised no one cared?

The truth is that with so many magazines and athlete calendars, an athlete artfully posing nude is passé. Sutherland is beautiful and reportedly wants to transition into an entertainment career; it was supposed to happen with a role on HBO’s Luck, but that show got cancelled. While it’s unfortunate that Sutherland decided to go the nude photo route for publicity, it’s almost more interesting that it isn’t really working. Also, what’s really egregious is the headline on the article: “Filly Cheesecake.”

Beyond the big problem of timing — we’re busy being outraged by another image — Vanity Fair and Derek are just recycling ideas. The mag is known for occasionally getting A-list actresses to pose nude for the cover of their Hollywood issue, and that usually incites a social media hullabaloo. But then that’s the cover, whereas Sutherland got buried inside.

Hoop wars?: Steve Nash was announced as the general manager of Canada Basketball’s senior men’s team last week but he hasn’t shut the door on his playing career just yet. Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reported Saturday that the Raptors and Knicks might be fighting over point guards this off-season. Landing Nash is Toronto’s dream scenario, but since it’s believed he’d prefer to go to a contender, they could also target the Knicks’ Jeremy Lin, a restricted free agent. To get him, Toronto would need to backload his contract with big money in the later years, in the hopes the Knicks would be reluctant to match the offer. Here’s hoping there’s some truth to these rumours, as either scenario helps wash away the memory of this year’s lost Raptors campaign.

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